


You Just Can't Get Agreement In This Present Tense

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Astral Projection, M/M, Time Travel, force projection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:40:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22519399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: A strange man comes to visit Anakin through his life.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 16
Kudos: 119
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2019





	You Just Can't Get Agreement In This Present Tense

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairleigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/gifts).



Anakin first met his strange friend when he was twelve years old. Obi-Wan had brought him back to the Temple for a time, allowing Anakin to share in lessons with his peers and allowing himself to reconnect with his own. Obi-Wan's master had taken him out into the galaxy for years on end, a pattern he was continuing with Anakin, but Ani could tell his master grew lonely too long from home.

He could relate. Months passed between times he thought about home and about his mom, only to be shaken by unexpected dreams of her holding him and rocking him like she did when he was little. He'd awakened from one of these, his heart aching. Unwilling to go back to sleep, Ani crept out of the room he shared here with a dozen other older younglings, climbing up to one of the high balconies overlooking the amazing city. The night air was warm but windy.

The strange man sat on the edge of the balcony, looking out. He turned as Anakin froze.

"Oh," Ani said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here."

"It's all right. I shouldn't, either." Anakin didn't recognize him although he seemed familiar somehow. One of the Masters who traveled far from Coruscant, he decided. The man said, "I won't tell if you won't." He was old in Anakin's estimation: gray hair and gray beard, and a sad self-deprecating humor in his blue eyes.

Curious, Ani moved closer. "I'm Anakin."

"I know."

That figured. Everyone around here looked at him with weird faces. Ani was the Chosen One. He was special, and not only because he'd started his education so very late compared to the other children here. He reasoned this was part of why Obi-Wan kept them traveling. It was harder to notice that Anakin didn't fit in here if he was rarely home.

The man patted the stone beside himself, indicating Ani could join him. He ought to go back to bed, but instead he joined the man on his perch. As he did, accidentally bumping him, he felt his arm go right through the other, like he was nothing but air. Startled, he jerked away.

"Careful. If you fall, I can't catch you."

"Are you a hologram?"

"No. This is a Force projection. I've been practicing." He made a face. Anakin noticed how the swift winds up here didn't blow the man's hair or robes even as they pulled at his own. "There's someone I'd like to visit, but the energy expenditure to project to him is far more than it is to come here for reasons I don't fully understand."

Him? Anakin didn't understand the odd twist in his gut to know this stranger would rather see someone else. He shook his head to clear away the thought. "How far away are you?"

"Far enough." He smiled at Anakin, and the twisting feeling was replaced by something rather nicer. "I'm glad I could see you instead. Why don't you tell me about your day?"

"What about it?"

"I don't know much about life in the Temple at this point. There's no one around to tell me what it was...is like."

"It's fine. I got to have lessons with Master Yoda today. He usually spends more time with the little younglings, but he made an exception to see the older students. We played a game." Thinking back, Ani was certain this had been a test disguised as a diversion. Master Yoda had wanted to know how Anakin was progressing in his study of the Force. He did not share this with the strange ghostly figure.

"Does he make you carry him on your back as you run through an exercise course?"

Ani laughed at the picture in his mind. "No, that would be weird."

"It would be, wouldn't it?" Wherever he was projecting from, his eyes and thoughts were a million miles away. "Are you still training with Obi-Wan?"

"Of course." He dangled his feet, kicking them. He wondered if this was another test. "He's a great master. Very kind, very wise. I am learning a lot from him."

The look this statement earned him was completely undecipherable and Ani didn't try.

"I should go, and you should get back to bed."

"I guess." Ani got up and started to walk back to the door. "Will you come back?"

"Would you like me to?"

Ani nodded.

"Then I will try. I'm still learning how to do this. It may take some time. If I don't succeed, then I would like to say, it was very nice to talk with you, Anakin." There was a slight catch to his words, the way Mom's voice got when she wanted to act like she was fine when she was sad. Anakin had nothing to say to that. Anakin gave him another nod and went through the door.

He waited for several breaths before sticking his head outside again. The stranger was gone.

* * *

He was seventeen before the strange apparition returned. He and Obi-Wan were out on another mission together, looking into the disappearance of a Keshian dignitary. While Obi-Wan made an official appearance in the presence of the royal relative suspected of the kidnapping, Anakin was sneaking around the regal compound looking for clues.

The stranger stood by a half-open door. He turned to see Anakin, undisguised pleasure on his face before he calmed into a more neutral expression. "You're older."

Anakin stopped short. "You." He made a quick decision and strode up to the man, waving his hand through him. "You're projecting again."

"Yes."

He'd told himself the last incident had been another dream, some bizarre refocus of his earlier anxieties about his mother channeled into a vision of someone who resembled an older version of himself, a creation in his brain of a father he'd never had. Anakin was wide awake this time, and the man was the same.

"Who are you?"

"A friend," he said too quickly. He saw the suspicion darkening on Anakin's face and held out a hand. "I swear I mean you nothing but good."

He was standing in a hallway where he shouldn't be talking with someone who wasn't there. Truth be told, this wasn't the weirdest adventure he'd been on. "Fine. I'm busy right now. Can you come back later?"

The man nodded. "I'd like to."

He wasn't going to believe this happened. But he was curious. "Did you figure out how to project to your friend?"

Sorrow passed over his face. "Not yet."

Anakin knew what the sharp twist in his own belly was this time. He didn't like it, but he did like the hopeful smile on the man's face when he said, "Then you can practice by visiting me."

* * *

Anakin was nineteen and on campaign with his troops when the man appeared in his tent. One minute, Anakin was alone, ticking over too many things in his head. The next, the same old man sat next to him, his face in a puzzled but pleased smile. "Hello."

He'd been expecting this, both in hope and dread. The first time could have been a dream, the second a hallucination brought on by a combination of stress and a bad reaction to the fruit on Keshi. A third visit meant this was real and not simply a construct of his mind. The stranger had been stalking him since childhood.

"Who are you?"

"A friend."

"No, not good enough." He pointed outside. "We are at war. Those men out there are relying on me not to make a mistake and get them all killed. Visitations from imaginary Jedi are not helpful. Who are you?"

The man took a deep breath, considering to himself. "My name is Luke. As I told you yesterday, I don't mean you any harm."

Yesterday? "The last time we met? That was two years ago."

Luke's eyes dropped as Anakin shivered with understanding. "You're traveling through time."

"Projecting," Luke corrected. "My body is sitting on a rock on a planet very far from here."

"And in a different time." Anakin tried to imagine this. "Are you an archaeologist studying the past? Do we win the war?"

Luke's mouth dropped in shock, making him look foolish and strangely young. Then he said, "I can't tell you that. I'm sorry."

"You know who I am. You knew when I was a boy."

Luke's eyes were far away again. "There were holos of you." His gaze met Anakin's again. "I had quite the collection."

Anakin frowned at him. He didn't relish being someone's history report. "You said you were trying to reach someone else. More research?"

"No. He's my...." Luke stopped himself.

The jealousy nibbled away again. "Your husband?"

That drew a rather amused look. "My son. Nearly, and as good as."

Anakin felt his emotions settle. "He's missing?"

"I'm afraid to talk to him, and I know I have to. I think that might be why I keep coming here instead. Hide away from my present by visiting the past."

"You're procrastinating with me?"

"I could go. I should go."

"No," Anakin said. "Stay. If you can't tell me about my future, tell me about yours. What's your son's name?"

"Ben. His parents were the closest friends I've ever had. I named him." Pain and love shine through the words, and Anakin wondered if his mom had talked about him the same way after he'd left Tatooine.

"I hope you get the chance to talk to him."

"Thank you."

* * *

To his surprise and delight, Luke began visiting him every few cycles. Anakin grew used to the sudden appearance in his quarters, or aboard his ship. Other people didn't seem to sense him. Even Obi-Wan and Ahsoka walked right through him without the faintest idea Luke was standing there, while Luke watched them with the wide-eyed wonder of someone viewing ancient history. He wouldn't say how many centuries ahead he lived, and he dismissed Anakin's attempts to pick up information from him.

"I bet Ahsoka will be very tall when she's an adult," he dropped into a conversation after his young apprentice had retired for the night.

Luke changed the subject without telling whether she would even see adulthood.

"I've always wondered if I'll go gray or white when I'm a Master myself."

Luke didn't even dignify that with a reply.

Anakin stopped after a while, more interested in Luke's thoughts on the texts they'd both read, dry old assignments back in his youthful curriculum that sounded far more interesting described in Luke's clever, amused voice. He wouldn't say anything about how long Obi-Wan would live, or if they'd ever catch Count Dooku, but Anakin had learned the right questions would yield stories about this mysterious Ben, who seemed to have traveled with Luke for some time as his own apprentice. What a curious future, that someone could have a child, or almost have one as Luke said, and be that child's master. Attachments such as that simply weren't permitted for the Jedi now, a fact he knew too well.

The war crawled on, ground gained and lost every day, and friends the same. Anakin's secrets pressed on him, weighing him down when he most needed to jump and fly. Luke was one of those secrets, but one he found eased him rather than hurt. His was a comforting presence in the middle of chaos, and the one person Anakin cared about who couldn't be killed standing right next to him. Luke was safe on another planet in another time, long after this terrible war was over.

He lingered more and more with each visit, his ethereal body often lying next to Anakin's as they talked into the nights until Anakin fell asleep. Once or twice he woke to find Luke still there, awake, watching over him, and this soothed Anakin's worries in ways he could not express with words.

* * *

Luke seemed concerned.

"What's wrong?" Anakin asked him as he dressed.

At some point, perhaps months ago, perhaps more than a year, he'd lost any remaining shyness around his friend. Luke joined him whether he was deep in battle, or bathing. He'd been embarrassed the first time Luke had appeared while Anakin had been alone in his own quarters, nude atop his covers, ten or so strokes away from finishing. Luke had offered no matching embarrassment or judgment, and the moment their eyes met, Anakin found he'd only been one stroke away. Anakin didn't intentionally wait to be discovered again after that, but he was, as often as not, and Luke's eyes held his over and over. The last time, Anakin had seen Luke's hand slide into his own robes, denying Anakin the same sight even as Luke gasped out at the same time he did. Still not the weirdest thing that had happened to him in his life.

"I won't be able to come see you any longer."

Cold clutched him. "Why?"

"A lot of reasons."

Anakin made a face. "I'm sorry. I'll be more discreet from now on. I thought you were comfortable about the...." Thanks to a childhood and adulthood with the Jedi, he had trouble putting it into words, but Luke understood.

"It's not that." His tone said it was that, though not only the sex. "I have things I must do, and I can't expend the energy to visit you again." This was also a lie though one closer to the truth.

Anakin had learned how to lie in the last couple of years. Like everything else, it was a matter of practice. "Whatever you think is best. I hope you find Ben."

"Thank you. Anakin, I have a request for you. Tell Obi-Wan."

"Tell him what?"

"You know."

Anakin had never breathed a word about his other secrets to Luke, but Luke was a visitor from another time, and all Anakin's secrets were mere lines upon a page of flimsi to him. That was no reason to give in when Luke had just told him he was leaving forever. "I don't know. I tell Obi-Wan everything, except about you because he'd think I've lost my mind."

Luke watched him for a long time. "He would," he said at last.

"I love you." The words spilled out too fast, overflowing him in a moment. Luke stared at him, his face lost in a series of emotions. Anakin nearly erupted in words again, but he'd always been bad with them, and pulled them back now.

Luke stepped closer, and reached up, and kissed his forehead. Anakin could swear he felt the softest pressure of his lips. "You have no idea how long I've wished to hear you say that." He didn't say the same words back to Anakin. His eyes said them for him, and in a flash of remembrance, Anakin realized they always had. "Goodbye, Anakin."

And he was gone.


End file.
